Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1887-09-17
he solutisn q The Labor Problems.

The Selutisa q the Labor Problems.
The best thinkers on economic top
les seem to be more nearly unanimous
than ever before In the opinion that CO.
operation is to be the ultimate solution
of the industrial problems of our day.
This view was held, it is we'll known,
by the Christian socialists of England
thirty-fve years ago, and ct the time
they mad mapped out pretty clearly the
form of cooperation which they
thought future society would adopt.
Among them were some of the most
gifted Englishmen of this century, who
have demonstrated long ago that they
were not mere Missionaries, but that, on
the contrary, they far excelled in prac-
teal wisdom their detractors. Many
of these early Christian socialists, now
old men, after life rich in experience,
still maintain their former opinion
about cooperation. Mr.. Thomas
Hughes, for example, writes: II still
look to this movement as the best hope
for England and other land,."
John Stuart Mill frequently gave ex-
preston to somewhat similar views, al
though he doubtless held that public
authority would play more important
role in future industrial society than
did the Christian socialists. He SYM
pathiZed-at any rate in his later days
Ito greater extent with the State So
cialists of the continent Perhaps the
result of recent studies in economics
is best given by Professor Henry G.
Adams in these words: "The cooper
alive principle is the one to which the
wages system must give way; but what
particular form industrial organization
will take no one can say"
The world has ever been restless un-
der any social system which tolerated
a separation Of labor and capital; for
although the things TO. which these
words stand may, as the trite saying
has it, be allies, not enemies, the same
has not always been true of those who
furnish capital and labor; nor can any
honest man say their interests are pre-
cisely Identical. The point of diverg-
ence of interests is so sharp, and the
ultimate separation so wide, as to give
a good deal of support to the doctrine
that their enmity lies in the nature of
things. They have not always been
so separated as they are to-day In the
middle ages production was carried on
under the guidance of men who owned
their tools, and employed them with
their own hands. Capital was not an
important separate factor, for it was,
as a rule, united with labor in owner
oh Il 1ot1
we have slavery, which united labor
and capital in the same hands, namely,
the lands of the master, who owned la
Dor precisely as he owned capital.
Both were chattels. The arguments
urged for this union by the ablest adj
vocates of slavery were powerful.
Again and again they pointed out the
lmpossibility of permanently harmo-
NOUS social relations should labor and
capital be supplied by two distinct in
dustrial classes. They were never sat
isfactorily answered on this point. But
their conclusion was nevertheless up-
warranted. The first stage in the evo-
luton of industrial society finds labor
and capital united, and the stage of
evolution to which we must come will
also witness their union, but there will
be this radical difference: in the enc
period of evolution they are united in
the hands of the capitalists; in the
other, they will be found in the hands
of the laborers.
AS John Stuart Mill says, this must
be brought about by the development
of the partnership principle. No one,
as already stated, can tell exactly what
this form will take, but some things
seem already clear. Corporations will
play an important part in this develop
ment, as they gradually become more
democratic in their Tendencies. Cor
porations and cooperative enterprises
will become more and more nearly as
simulated until they can scarcely be dis
Gnguished. -HarDe7's MAGAZINE.